Chesapeake Energy will work with partners to build a USD 900 million natural-gas processing plant in Columbiana County. The Oklahoma City-based company announced the plan, saying it will work on the project with M3 Midstream and EV Energy Partners. The development will be a “critically important link in the … chain for the rapidly developing Utica shale,” Mike Stice, president of Chesapeake Midstream Development, said in a statement. Rob Nichols, spokesman for Gov. John Kasich, said the announcement is “great news for the people of eastern Ohio, and we’re glad that Chesapeake continues to find Ohio the right place to do business.” The complex, parts of which are scheduled to be in service by June 2013, will provide support to the companies that are extracting natural gas and natural-gas liquids from Ohio’s Utica shale. The USD 900 million investment would be made over five years. Chesapeake and its affiliates will own 59 percent of the project; M3 will own 33 percent; and EV Energy Partners will own 8 percent. The plant will gather, compress and process natural gas. It will have an initial capacity of 600 million cubic feet of gas per day.